Do you value Your sleep?

Most people will experience lack of sleep at some point and often this leaves us feeling generally tired, more irritable and it affects our ability to think clearly and rationally significantly. Feeling fully rested can have great knock on effects such as feeling sharper and clearer which aids our sense of wellbeing. Being able to think clearly allows us to learn better which improves our performance and consequently our sense of esteem. Denying ourselves of sleep can be a way that people self sabotage. If you consider we live within the expectations of ourselves and others, not allowing ourselves enough sleep may render us into a state that means we do not perform at our best or makes us feel guilty for not being able to perform well. This may keep us within our negative expectations of ourselves and within our own comfort zone.

When we transcend into a deep sleep, which is estimated to be after 3 to 4 hours, our mind begins to process events. This state, know as REM (Rapid Eye Movement), gives our mind the time to process events at deeper levels, discard information or move information from our short term memory to long term memory. Often a symptom of lack of sleep is an inability to remember things. This is due to the short-term memory being overloaded. Research has also found that when we sleep our brain cells can contract by up to 60%. This then creates space for cerebral spinal fluid to wash between the gaps taking away toxins.

It has also been found that sleep can aid and preserve how we look. Sleep promotes healthy skin and skin tone. As sleep reduces stress, blemishes and pimples that are stress related are reduced.